Criminal Psychology

Although it has been well preserved, the archive paper is still yellow and old, like a piece of buried history.

Lin Chen touched the file and flipped through the pages.

It should be an accident, the cause, process and result are very simple.

The deceased was a homeless man. According to the residents who reported the case, it was very cold at that time, which was the first major cold wave in decades.They went out to buy vegetables in the morning, and saw the homeless who lived in their neighborhood all year round died in the freezing rain outside.

Residents suspected that because of the cold and slippery weather, the homeless man stumbled and fell, and his head hit the stone steps by the bridge, resulting in a comminuted skull fracture and death.

The person who called the police was a resident of the street. After the police officers arrived at the scene of the crime, they questioned many neighbors in the neighborhood. It turned out that the death of the homeless man was purely accidental.

Lin Chen turned to the third page, which recorded the witnesses and confessions that the police officers had questioned at that time, including their addresses, names and other basic information.

Chen Jianguo, who lives at No. 3 Xiaolin Lane, said that he did hear shouts outside the house after five o'clock in the morning, but the voice was very short at that time. He turned over and didn't care. Unexpectedly, someone died outside. I regret not getting up sooner to take a look.

Next, around the small bridge, the police questioned the residents of Nos. 5, 7, and 9, and Nos. 2, 6, and 8 of Xiaolin Lane, and all obtained similar testimonies.

Lin Chen quickly turned to the fourth page, looking at the recorded names and sections of testimonies signed by the interviewees, unfolding an accidental death case in his mind.

……

Lin Chen read more and more slowly, and the files on his right hand piled up higher and higher. Finally, the subtle changes in Lin Chen's calm face caught Xing Conglian's attention.

"What did you find?" Xing Conglian asked.

Lin Chen stabilized his breath and said: "Everyone stop, you can call back those people you sent out."

Xing Conglian frowned, and his eyes fell on the file in Lin Chen's hand again: "You found it, so quickly?"

Lin Chen pointed the dossier with his fingers, and said calmly: "It should be this."

Xing Conglian immediately clapped his hands, attracting the attention of all the police officers who were immersed in the files, and said loudly: "Everyone, stop, organize the files in your hands, put them back in the box according to the year, and then you can go."

All the police officers have only been immersed in this job for less than half an hour, and those trivial and bizarre old cases seem to bring people back to that era, so they still have a little bewildered confusion on their faces.Everyone wanted to get some answers from Lin Chen's expression. However, Lin Chen's eyes were still watery, and he kept his brows in deep thought, making it difficult for people to see the slightest clue.

Soon, the box containing the files was filled again, the police officers exited one by one, and the office door was closed.

Wang Chao, who was sitting on the sofa beside him and licking lemon-flavored lollipops, couldn't wait to rush to Lin Chen's side. Xing Conglian sat down beside Lin Chen, but Wang Chao insisted on getting between him and Lin Chen, squatting down like a little pet, watching Looking at Lin Chen, he asked curiously, "What happened to Brother Chen's case?"

Lin Chen handed over the file, leaned on the back of the chair, and closed his eyes slightly.

Chao Chao really looked through it on his own, and Xing Conglian copied the dossier in the young man's hand, and smacked it on the other's forehead: "You have a lot of things, do you understand?"

Wang Chao yelled: "Boss, the dossier just passed through your hands!"

Xing Conglian then copied the dossier, and without hesitation slapped Nie Zi again.

"Dynasty." Lin Chen finally spoke slowly, "Can you call out the layout of Xiaolin Lane back then?"

Wang Chao snapped his fingers, I took a look at it, and I will draw it for you.

Lin Chen tilted his head and said, "Please mark the specific name of each household."

At that time, Chao Dynasty had already got up to draw paper. Hearing this request, the young man couldn't help being stunned: "I haven't seen this before. I'll mark it after I check it."

"No need, let me tell you, just mark it." Lin Chen said.

Soon, a geographical map of the small bridge surrounding the accidental death of the tramp appeared on paper.Lin Chen reported the house numbers of each household in the eyewitness testimony, and Wang Chao marked it out bit by bit.

"Li Wanru, No. 8 Xiaolin Lane..."

After Lin Chen finished his report, he paused for a long time, while Wang Chao still held his pen, waiting for his next words, because there was still a blank space on the paper: "Brother Chen, where is No. 4?"

Lin Chen's face was as calm as water, he just stared at the young man, Xia Yang with a bright lens outside the window, Lin Chen said lightly: "Guess?"

Wang Chao took a breath: "Shen Lian's family?"

When a homeless man died, the police made a record and searched all the surrounding residents, except for Shen Lian's family, which seemed to be no problem.Maybe something happened to Shen Lian's family in those few days, or Shen's family just went on a trip. In short, there are countless reasons to explain this small point, but the more Xing Conglian reads the transcript, the more he understands the sense of certainty in Lin Chen's heart Why come.

For example, Li Wanru from No. 8 Xiaolin Lane said.The homeless man has lived on their street for many years, except that when the civilized city was built, the staff of the shelter shoveled the mangy dog ​​past for a while, and no one has cared about it.Now that a person is dead, everyone can't say applause, but they are still relieved.When asked what happened outside when the homeless man died, Li Wanru also said that it was so cold and she was still sleeping at the time, so she didn't know what happened outside.

Seeing the end, Xing Conglian glanced at the name of the exiting police officer—Bian Yuan.

He stood up, put the police uniform on his arm, and said to the other two people in the office: "Hungry, do you want to eat dumplings? I invite you."

……

Lao Bian Dumplings is just outside the criminal police team of the Municipal Bureau.

Bian Ben is a remote surname. It is said that the ancestors of the Bian family were imperial cooks, so they have good craftsmanship passed down from their ancestors.And Lao Bian is the one in the family who has gone wild.When he was young, he worked as a policeman. After retirement, because his grandson loved the dumplings he made, he simply opened a shop, specializing in the business of his colleagues in the police station.

When Xing Conglian entered the store, the air-conditioning in the store was already at its lowest level, but because of the hot dumplings and the police officers coming and going, the store was as hot as a steamer.The familiar police officers greeted Xing Conglian to sit down, Xing Conglian pretended to look at the menu posted on the wall, Wang Chao couldn't hold back his anxiety, and whispered: "Boss, time is so tight, what are you doing with the menu?" Let's eat dumplings, is there any clue here?"

When Lin Chen saw the signboard of the dumpling restaurant, he seemed to understand it already, so Consultant Lin just said kindly: "Three delicacies, vinegar without garlic."

It was the owner himself who came to keep the account. Xing Cong patted the shoulder of the policeman sitting next to him and said, "Enter my account."

The other party understood and immediately got up and left.

Of course, those who opened a dumpling restaurant outside the police station knew this situation very well. The old man sat down in the vacant seat and said, "Let me tell you, Lao Xing, since I opened a dumpling restaurant outside the police station, this place has almost become an information relay." Stand up, ask me anything."

Lin Chen put the dossier on the table and pushed it in front of the old man: "I want to ask you some information about this case."

Lao Bian put down the small book in his hand, took out his reading glasses from the front and put on his reading glasses. When he opened the first page, his expression changed.

Xing Conglian knew that they might be getting closer to the answer.

"This case..." Lao Bian dragged his tone and sighed, "What do you want to ask?"

"Why is there no confession record from the Shen family at No. 4 Xiaolin Lane?" Lin Chen asked.

The old man pushed his glasses, saw Lin Chen, and said with emotion: "As expected of Consultant Lin. But before I answer, can I ask, what happened?"

"About the little girl from the Shen family." Lin Chen was vague, "At that time, she was probably in junior high school."

A sharp look flashed across Lao Bian's face, he shook his head and said directly, "Is it called Shen Lian?"

The second floor of the dumpling restaurant is Lao Bian’s residence. The retired old policeman took them upstairs, took out a stack of files from the wooden shelf, flipped through them in chronological order, took out a thin file from it, and handed it over. .

Xing Conglian looked down. Specifically, it should be a page that was not recorded in the file.

The old man said: "The Shen family didn't make a statement because they went back to their hometown in those few days."

"Don't you have any doubts?" Xing Cong even felt that the temperature of the small building had dropped.

"Look at this record first." Lao Bian didn't answer directly.

On February 2, one and a half months after his death, a resident of Xiaolin Street approached the police to provide clues to the case.

The resident who provided the clues refused to disclose his name, but it seems that he should still be a junior high school student.

The junior high school student told the police that her home was very close to the scene of the crime, so she knew exactly what happened.The death of the homeless man who slipped and fell on the stone bridge was not an accident, but was pushed down and crashed on the steps to his death.

The junior high school students provided several names, including Li Wanru, Chen Jianguo and Li Guoqing, and described some of the events of the night when the crime occurred.

The junior high school girl who provided clues said that it was very windy and windy that night. She went home from cram school at night and witnessed a dispute between resident Chen Jianguo and a homeless man.

At that time, many residents of Xiaolin Lane witnessed the tragedy, but everyone was covering up for Chen Jianguo, and no one was willing to stand up and tell the truth.She wanted to report the crime at the time, but was dragged back to her hometown by her parents. Only now did she pluck up the courage to go to the police.

Xing Cong raised his head from Lian's files.

"Have you investigated?" he asked.

"The girl has no way to provide conclusive or even indirect evidence. We re-investigated the scene based on what she said, and found no doubts, nor did we find the blood she said. We asked and investigated the surrounding residents again. All the residents gave the same statement without any abnormalities. Four times, we conducted a total of four investigations, and all the results said that the girl who came to us was lying."

Xing Conglian frowned, and finally asked: "Why didn't you put this investigation record into the official big file?"